HARLEM — The city will decline taking federal funds during the Donald Trump administration if they come with strings attached that go against the city's values, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday.
"We will not accept federal aid if it comes with strings attached that undermine our values and hurt our people," he added. "That may be a choice we have to make," De Blasio said on the Brian Lehrer Show Friday.
He also encouraged Democrats to try to work with the President-elect on issues they agree with and could help their constituents, while acknowledging that many of Trump's plans and policies are still unknown.
"The proof will be in the pudding," de Blasio added. "Let's be blunt, we've seen Donald Trump change positions constantly in the course of the last two years. That is not a reassuring reality. That is a troubling reality on its face. But we won't know what his polices are until they start to happen."
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There is currently a debate among Democrats in Washington about "normalizing" Trump by cooperating with his agenda that may include things such as mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and creating a registry of Muslims entering the country.
De Blasio says he agrees with former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders that Democrats should seek common ground and not become obstructionists as congressional Republicans have for much of the Obama presidency.
"If we can work together on a huge infrastructure plan that will put people back to work, including in New York City, and help us fix our roads and our bridges, our mass transit, of course we have to do that," said de Blasio.
"But what Bernie said was right. We draw a line in the sand. Anything we say as divisive, anything we see as bigotry, undermining core American Constitutional values, we have to fight intensely," the mayor added.
And New York City would be willing to take a financial hit to uphold those values, said de Blasio.
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Ultimately, de Blasio said, any attempt by Trump to follow through on some of his extremist policies would cause a backlash.
"I don't think there's any normalization. If the president-elect actually tries to follow through on a number of his extreme pronouncements and policies, there would be no normalization," said de Blasio.
But callers to the show where fearful of many of Trump's policies as the troubling history of some of the president-elect's cabinet choices began to emerge. Trump's choice for Attorney General, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, has participated in hate speech, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
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"If you look at some of his positions, obviously I don't agree with them and they go against the interests of a lot of what we value here in New York City," said de Blasio who added that he met Sessions for the first time during his meeting with Trump.
One caller, a transgender woman from the Upper East Side, said she was afraid that Trump would enact policies that would hurt the LGBT community.
"If Trump gets laws against the LGBTQ community passed can New York City protect its LGBTQ citizens?" she asked.
De Blasio said the answer was a "resounding yes" because the city has local control of vital systems.
"We can protect all people in this city because we at the local level control so much of what affects people's lives. We control our police force, not the federal government. We control our schools, not the federal government," said de Blasio.
De Blasio said he was reassured that Trump had expressed support for gay marriage in a recent interview.
Another caller expressed concern about losing federal subsidies for affordable housing that has kept him from homelessness. The mayor said attempts to "undermine" affordable housing would create "uproar" in cities across the country.
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Mohammed, a caller from Queens, said he was fearful of Trump's immigration policies and that he would "round up all undocumented citizens of New York City" and create a registry of people from Muslim countries.
"We're scared, especially my wife, every day," said Mohammed who has a 3-year-old daughter who is a citizen.
De Blasio, who said he expressed to Trump the fears New Yorkers had during his meeting, once again took to assuring city residents.
"Mohammed, we will protect our people," said de Blasio. "Policing is done at the local level and there are 36,000 members of the NYPD who are not going to be in the business of deportation."
